Slow Cooker Sage and Sausage Stuffing Recipe

For extra-moist and crisp stuffing, break out the slow cooker.

By
J. Kenji López-Alt
Kenji Lopez Alt
J. Kenji López-Alt
Culinary Consultant
Kenji is the former culinary director for Serious Eats and a current culinary consultant for the site. He is also a New York Times food columnist and the author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science.
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Updated November 21, 2024
Overhead view of slow cooker stuffing

Serious Eats / Fred Hardy

Why It Works

  • Fresh sage and sage sausage add plenty of flavor to the base.
  • Dehydrating bread in the oven makes for a better finished texture than simply using staled bread.

I'm generally not too keen on the slow cooker. I know, I know. It keeps you from having to use the other appliances. It's great when you have a small kitchen. It can have a hot meal waiting for you by the time you get home. It keeps your food hot and ready to eat all night. These are all real solutions that a slow cooker provides. The one issue I have with it? It doesn't make the best food. Pretty much anything you can cook in a slow cooker will come out better when cooked with a Dutch oven in the oven.

But there are, of course, exceptions to every rule, and the slow cooker exception is bread pudding. According to Kate Williams, a former Serious Eats contributor and one of the recipe testers behind America's Test Kitchen's Slow Cooker Revolution, the best recipes in that book are the beans and the bread puddings.

Seeing as my classic sage and sausage stuffing is pretty much a savory bread pudding, I figured it was a prime candidate for the slow cooker.

I started by making my standard stuffing base, with sage sausage, onions, celery, garlic, butter, plenty of sage, cubed bread, stock, and eggs. Then, instead of piling it into a casserole to bake, like I normally would, I transferred it all to my slow cooker and set it to cook for a few hours on low heat.

If you try this method at home, when you come back to the slow cooker after those hours are up, the smell will be incredible, but the dish might not be so appealing visually. Because a slow cooker heats from the bottom and traps condensation on the top, the top of your stuffing (or that of any food cooked in a slow cooker, for that matter) will never get brown or crisp. Instead, it'll look like moist, steamed bread.

A spoon tapping on the crispy golden surface of stuffing made in a slow cooker.

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

But appearances can be deceiving, because all around the edges, you'll find some incredible crisp, browned bits, kinda like the crispy socarrat of a good paella. When portioning out your stuffing, just make sure to scrape up around the edges for each serving to give everyone a bit of the good stuff.

A spoon of crispy golden stuffing taken from the slow cooker.

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

So what if you want to use your favorite stuffing recipe in the slow cooker? How would you adapt it? Here are some tips for converting any stuffing recipe for the slow cooker:

  • If it does not contain eggs, add one and a half large eggs per loaf of bread used.
  • Cut back on liquid by 25%.
  • Cook on low heat for four to six hours.
  • Make sure to butter the inside of the slow cooker to prevent sticking.

November 2014

Recipe Details

Slow Cooker Sage and Sausage Stuffing Recipe

Prep 5 mins
Cook 6 hrs 20 mins
Active 45 mins
Cooling Time 35 mins
Total 7 hrs
Serves 10 to 14 servings
Cook Mode (Keep screen awake)

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 pounds (567g) soft Italian or French bread (about 1 loaf), cut into 3/4-inch dice (about 3 quarts)

  • 1 stick unsalted butter (4 ounces; 113g), plus more for buttering slow cooker

  • 1 1/2 pounds (680g) sage sausage, removed from casing

  • 1 large onion (about 12 ounces; 340g), finely chopped (about 2 cups)

  • 4 large ribs celery (about 12 ounces; 340g), finely chopped (about 2 cups)

  • 2 medium cloves garlic (10g), minced or grated on a Microplane

  • 1/4 cup (11g) minced fresh sage leaves (see notes)

  • 3 cups (710ml) low-sodium chicken or turkey broth, homemade or store-bought (see notes)

  • 4 large eggs (2 ounces; 57g each)

  • 1/4 cup (8g) minced parsley leaves, divided

Directions

  1. Adjust oven racks to lower-middle and upper-middle positions. Preheat oven to 275°F (135°C). Spread bread evenly over 2 rimmed baking sheets. Stagger trays on oven racks and bake until completely dried, about 50 minutes total, rotating trays and stirring bread cubes several times during baking. Remove from oven and allow to cool, about 20 minutes. Turn off oven.

    Breadcrumbs on two separate baking sheets

    Serious Eats / Fred Hardy

  2. While bread is cooling: In a large Dutch oven, melt butter over medium-high heat until foaming subsides (do not allow butter to brown), about 2 minutes. Add sausage and, using a stiff whisk or potato masher, break sausage into fine pieces (largest pieces should be no bigger than 1/4 inch). Cook, stirring frequently, until only a few bits of pink remain, about 8 minutes. Add onions, celery, garlic, and sage and cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables are softened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add half of chicken stock.

    Sausage cooking in a large dutch oven

    Serious Eats / Fred Hardy

  3. In a medium bowl, whisk remaining chicken stock, eggs, and 3 tablespoons parsley until homogeneous. Stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, slowly pour egg mixture into sausage mixture. Add bread cubes and fold gently until evenly mixed. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.

    Mixing bread crumbs into sausage mixture

    Serious Eats / Fred Hardy

  4. Grease the inside of a large 7-qt. slow cooker with butter. Transfer stuffing to slow cooker. Cover with lid and set to low heat. Cook until stuffing registers 210ºF (98ºC), about 5 hours. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving. Keep warm or sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon parsley to serve.

    Stuffing cooked inside pressure cooker

    Serious Eats / Fred Hardy

Special Equipment

Rimmed baking sheets, Dutch oven, slow cooker

Notes

2 teaspoons dried sage leaves can be substituted for 1/4 cup minced fresh sage.

If using homemade or low-sodium stock, season to taste with salt and pepper before adding.

If desired, dried or fresh fruits and nuts can be folded into the stuffing along with the bread cubes in Step 3. This makes an excellent bird stuffing, producing enough to stuff several small birds or two 18- to 22-pound birds.

Make-Ahead and Storage

Bread can be dried out and, once cooled, stored in an airtight container or zip-top bag at room temperature for up to 5 days. 

Stuffing can be prepared through step 3, covered with aluminum foil, and refrigerated up to 2 days in advance. When ready to cook, discard foil and proceed with step 4 of recipe.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
375Calories
17gFat
54gCarbs
13gProtein
×
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 10 to 14
Amount per serving
Calories375
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 17g21%
Saturated Fat 9g44%
Cholesterol 75mg25%
Sodium 580mg25%
Total Carbohydrate 54g20%
Dietary Fiber 21g76%
Total Sugars 5g
Protein 13g
Vitamin C 19mg97%
Calcium 855mg66%
Iron 16mg88%
Potassium 735mg16%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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